dunk on

verb

dunked on; dunking on; dunks on

transitive verb

1

: to make a dunk shot over (an opposing player)

[San Antonio] Spurs great Manu Ginobili … stars in a new social media video sharing the game thoughts that ran through his head as he dunked on Yao Ming, one of the NBA's tallest players ever.

—Madalyn Mendoza

[Malcolm] Brogdon showed the Bucks right away that they got the steal of the draft, as he had an impressive rookie season, even dunking on LeBron James and Kyrie Irving in one game.

—Matt Newton

2

slang : to publicly make fun of (someone or something) especially on social media

Justin Bieber decided he was up for a fresh new hairstyle (or just got sick of people dunking on him) and ditched the dreadlocks.

—Samantha Wilson

… getting dunked on on social media isn't the same as getting canceled (whatever that means). It's more like dropping your tray of food in the lunchroom in middle school and everyone points and laughs at you …

—Jason Aten

[Alex] Walker, a Democrat, is hoping that any attention he draws, whether people celebrate his message or dunk on him, will help transform him into an Internet phenomenon and defeat a Republican firebrand.

—Taylor Lorenz and David Weigel

An inflammatory tweet would be retweeted by supporters, dunked on by critics, and amplified by journalists, before making its way to website homepages, cable news … and newspaper front pages.

—David A. Graham

Examples of dunk on in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

And the only thing the Knicks couldn’t do was get Julius Randle to dunk on 7-foot-1 backup Trail Blazers center Ibou Badji. —Kristian Winfield, New York Daily News, 13 June 2024

Brown had started with a 3-pointer on the first possession, and followed it up with a thunderous dunk on the next. —Zack Cox, Hartford Courant, 21 Apr. 2024

There is no one easier to eviscerate, no one easier to dunk on, no one easier to prove wrong than this alien from Planet No-Doy. —Brian Moylan, Vulture, 14 Feb. 2024

Green tried to dunk on Porzingis at the end of the quarter, but he was rejected as Porzingis continued to thrive on both ends of the court. —Steven Johnson, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 7 June 2024

But between anecdotes about Woody Harrelson saving his life and dunking on teens at the YMCA while on tour, a pure, unabashed love for music permeates every page. —Allaire Nuss, EW.com, 28 May 2024

For Jaquez, a few of those moments came in the first two minutes of Game 1, when Brown spun past Jaquez and threw down a dunk on him just 48 seconds into the game and Jaquez then had his own dunk attempt blocked by Holiday a few possessions later. —Anthony Chiang, Miami Herald, 21 Apr. 2024

For head coach Aaron Fearne and Milicic, the thought of getting dunked on is irrelevant. —Hunter Bailey, Charlotte Observer, 18 Feb. 2024

The score was tied 50-50 after former Razorback Conner Vanover's putback dunk on Tamar Bates' three-point miss. —Tom Murphy, arkansasonline.com, 25 Feb. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1980, in the meaning defined at sense 1